KABUL, Afghanistan — Less than 48 hours after a runoff election to choose the next president of Afghanistan, the first signs of a looming political crisis emerged Monday, with the campaign of Abdullah Abdullah claiming there had been widespread ballot stuffing and suggesting he was being set up for a defeat he would not accept.

A senior campaign official for Abdullah, who won the most votes in the election’s first round, said the candidate believes President Hamid Karzai and a coterie of advisers around him orchestrated the fraud. The aim, in the estimation of the Abdullah campaign, was either to install Ashraf Ghani, the other candidate for president, or to see Karzai use a postelection crisis as an excuse to extend his own term in office.

“Karzai is quite happy everything is tied up,” said the official, who spoke anonymously because the campaign was still collecting evidence of fraud. “They have engineered it in a way that goes far beyond the normal. It’s industrial-scale fraud.”

The official, who is familiar with Abdullah’s thinking, questioned the neutrality of electoral officials and the courts, saying the candidate had no expectation that complaints would be addressed. Campaign officials also accused Ghani of being complicit in fraud.

Abdullah also has suggested there was widespread fraud, though he has not leveled direct accusations at Karzai or other officials. Speaking to reporters Sunday, Abdullah questioned initial reports that more than 7 million Afghans voted (his campaign figures 5 million would have been more realistic). He also said that his campaign staff had witnessed ballot stuffing in Kabul and elsewhere in favor of Ghani, and that some of the fraud was conducted by senior elections officials.

Karzai’s office scoffed at the Abdullah campaign’s accusations. “The accusation is absolutely baseless and wrong,” said Adela Raz, a spokeswoman for the president.

The campaign of Ghani, a former finance minister, said it would accept the official final result. But his campaign officials complained of fraud and violence on the part of Abdullah’s supporters and accused Abdullah himself of violating campaign laws and stoking a crisis.

The hard line from the Abdullah campaign, before all the ballots were even counted or any evidence of fraud publicly disclosed, propelled concerns that Afghanistan was headed for a political showdown at a crucial and delicate moment in a country with a history of civil strife.

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